Canned Pork Brains in Milk Gravy
King Unicorn sent me a link of interest for my Brains vs. Coffee debate. It lead me to this image of canned pork brains in milk gravy.
One serving has 1170% of your daily cholesterol.
Once the nausea subsided, I decided to do some research. Armour Star foods, which brings you such tummy-turning snacks as Treet Luncheon Loaf, is part of the Pinnacle Foods Group family. Their website reports that in 1948, Armour made the first deodorant soap Dial (at the time they'd been making soap as a by-product of the meatpacking process. Ew). I guess it makes sense since most of their food products make me feel unclean.
Which brings me back to the canned pork brains. Sadly(?), Armour no longer makes the product because the overall demand for it was so slight (shocking, I know). Apparently there were even recipes offered to enhance your pork brain experience.
But don't despair! You can still purchase the rival canned pork brain product here made by Rose Brand.
I've been able to track down a recipe and a video highlighting the product.
If you're curious to see what the product looks like, this video shows two people sitting down to dine on a plate of canned pork brains (warning: there's a few simulated and possibly real images of people throwing up at the start of the video. If you want to skip those, fast forward to the 25 second point).
This video came from Toastedrav.com where a visitor wrote the following response to the video:
I saw your Youtube video on Pork brains. As a kid and as an adult, I ate them at least once a week. My grandma mixed them with scrambled eggs. That is where you get the dish "brains and eggs." You made the mistake of eating them out of the can. That's just gross. Everyone knows, they have to be "cooked up" in bacon grease. Once you fry the brains in bacon grease, they break down. At that point, you add the beaten eggs. Then scramble the entire mixture until fluffy. The only thing left is to plate the brains and eggs and eat them.
Sorry Jeff in Chattanooga, I just don't think that's the problem.
Perhaps if it was fresh brains in a homemade milk gravy, I wouldn't be quite so grossed out. I recognize brains is a delicacy served around the world, but the tin-taste that is sure to accompany this highly processed "food" can't possibly be classified the same way.
I have no plans to serve this at my next Halloween bash, but perhaps others will.
And now for the big question: where does it stand in the Brains vs. Coffee debate? Coffee wins.
At first I thought it was an early April Fool's joke. Apparently not.
Shockingly high in cholesterol . . . wonder if it's because of the brains or the gravy?
Well, I have to go and throw up now . . .
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Submitted by halloween spirit (not verified) on March 22, 2009 - 6:00pm.only zombies are supposed to eat brains.
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Submitted by Diane (not verified) on March 22, 2009 - 8:57pm.I have a semi-annual trailer trash party in which you dress as trailer trash and dine on such delicacies as souse meat (a molded jelly or sausage made from pig’s or calf’s head), chitlins (fried pig intestins), pig ears and of course, pork brains in milk gravy.
We haven't figured out how to cook the chicken feet yet though.
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Submitted by Mr. Macabre (not verified) on March 22, 2009 - 10:33pm.None of those items (souse, ears or chitlins) bothers me like the canned brains in milk gravy does. Friends of the family ate cow's tongue but it was always fresh and prepared at the house so while it was odd to me (why would you want to eat it), it wasn't unthinkable.
I can't imagine one positive thing to say about this product.
Chicken feet is insanely popular if you like cartilage (which I don't care much for). You have to deep fry them and then cover them with your favourite sauce (usually with an Asian flare, but I suppose you could go straight bbq sauce).
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Submitted by Ghoul Friday on March 23, 2009 - 8:07am.So I'm trying to go vegetarian because when I think about where meat comes from, it horrifies me. You just brought that horrification (is that even a word?) to a whole new level. What I don't get is why that grosses some people out that also eat pork ass on a daily basis. Nice.
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Submitted by Dracenea (not verified) on March 22, 2009 - 10:40pm.Ugh, I remember seeing these at the grocery store a long time back. Disgusting that they still sell it! And OMG, it has that much cholesterol in it...I've never seen anything with 1,000+ on the label. Really crazy...and gross. :(
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Submitted by Eve Noir (not verified) on March 23, 2009 - 11:01pm.Deep fried chicken feet?! With barbeque sauce?! I suddenly feel the need to become a vegatarian.
Come to think of it, there's not really much worse than pork brains in milk gravy. The fact that it is chunky and pink out of the can doesn't help any. I rate it 9 mouth vomits on a scale of 10 for sickness inducing.
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Submitted by Mr. Macabre (not verified) on March 24, 2009 - 7:08pm.I don't think the guy who serves pork brains is allowed to say ew to eating chicken feet *wink*
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Submitted by Ghoul Friday on March 24, 2009 - 9:20pm.only zombies are supposed to eat brains.
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Submitted by A Nameless Minion (not verified) on May 4, 2009 - 1:15pm.I eat oysters and catfish too!
My doctor said, he would kill to have my good cholesterol
that I had the best cholesterol of anyone he had ever seen.
Your description of pork brains in gravy was disgusting.
I have been eating brains and eggs all of my life. My
mother cooked them on Sunday morning before church.
It was a treat. If you don't know anything about a food,
you should not bash it. How you cook it: you put a small
amount of olive oil in a skillet let it get hot and dump the can
into the oil. Leave the heat on med. once it start bubbling,
you don't mash it but you separate it into smaller or small
pieces. When the gravy is almost cook completely out,
you pour over the brains 4 well beaten eggs. Prepare it to
the consistency of scrambled eggs. It is wonderful. My
grandchildren who started eating this recipe when they were
3 or 4 and they love it. You serve it with multi grain bread or
biscuits...
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Submitted by Pat Walker (not verified) on July 2, 2009 - 11:23am.I'll give you credit, Pat. I've never had it so I can't truly say one way or another what canned brains taste like.
I think it's great your cholesterol levels are superb. I'd attribute that to your consumption of seafood before I'd give credit to the canned brains.
But I won't relent on my prejudice against canned meat - brains or not. In my lifetime, I have yet to eat any canned meat - including the nicest lumped crab - that did not have a tin taste. Thus, I think all canned meat products are gross by default (to the point of being inedible).
As I said earlier, I wouldn't be so quick to turn my nose up at it if the brains were fresh. Though I would need to be coaxed into trying it.
Keep on enjoying them brains!
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Submitted by Ghoul Friday on July 2, 2009 - 12:39pm.i remember a restaurant that use to exist around here that served pork brains in eggs.... i guess thats a semi popular dish (or not) but i rembember them serving it, never tried it tho
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Submitted by tkgmalice (not verified) on August 23, 2009 - 9:23pm.My mother also used to scramble Armour Pork Brains into our scrambled eggs. As soon as I was old enough to use the stove myself, I started scrambling my own eggs....
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Submitted by Stephanie (not verified) on August 30, 2009 - 7:12pm.My grandmother was the mayor's daughter, they weren't trash by any means. When she was little, they would kill a chicken and the dog got the head to chew on and the kids got to play with the chicken feet, she used to smile thinking about working the claws by pulling the tendons. She also played with the pig's bladder like a balloon when they slaughtered pigs. My dad ate Christmas with some old neighbors, boiled chittlin. They also eat possum and raise pigs, so they eat brains and eggs regularly.My other grandfather used to eat squirrel brains with his eggs.He cracked their skulls open with a hammer, like a walnut, and poured the brains into the pan.One of my friends went to the Phillipines to give his mail order bride her ring and his future in-laws served him dog casserole. He said it tasted like pork, but was greasier than possum. 100% true.
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Submitted by A Nameless Minion (not verified) on February 3, 2010 - 8:47pm.Post new comment